Bangladesh09 Tuesday

Tuesday 15th September

Up at 7:55am and down for breakfast of omelette and bread, followed by a team meeting. Global Care is a Christian charity and prayer is central to its life. Believe me, with journeys similar to the one we had just undertook you need prayer! Global Care work with some of the most vulnerable and forgotten children on earth and it’s something that would be hard to do without the grace of God.

The journey to the project in Horintana took us another 45 minutes and was just as eventful but somewhat more likeable. It was all the way on public transport, starting with the local bus. The bus was packed but they found room for the nine of us and our cases while some obliging locals chose to go upstairs onto the roof to ride. 20 minutes later we arrived at a ferry crossing, this time for passengers only across one of the myriad of rivers that wind their way through the Sundarbarns. The ferry terminus was a mile or so from the road but there were flat bed tuk-tuks on hand to take us down a bumpy path to the shore. I tried filming the ride but it was pretty bumpy going.

The boat trip was smooth though the diesel engine kicked out a bit of smoke and drowned out any conversation. Our destination was Horintana, a market village, only busy on market days. It was a market day and it was busy. We were met at the ferry station by workers from the Love Bangladesh Ministries School and each given a garland of orange carnations to wear.

There’s a bit in the C S Lewis book The Horse And His Boy where the Narnians walk through the streets of Carlorman and there’s an air of celebration about the whole thing. That’s what it was like. We walked through the narrow market streets for about half a mile when we heard singing; “Good morning, it’s good to see you,” over and over. Then through the trees we saw a line of blue and red uniforms before seeing the entrance to the school, decorated to announce our arrival. We were given more garlands and showered with petals as we made our way down the path, children saying, “Good morning, happy to see you!” as we went. It was all rather overwhelming and incredibly humbling.

Teachers sang us a welcome song
We walked through the entrance to the buildings and I got my first glimpse of the fish pools. Having talked about the pools for a year now at gigs up and down the country, to see them was amazing. There they were, two pools. Fantastic! We had an official welcome where the staff sang a song and one of the teachers made a short speech. Then we were asked to introduce ourselves. I couldn’t help but tell them how exited I was to see them at last. It really was an amazing feeling.

Once the welcomes had finished the children went to their classes and we met together with John to decide what we were doing. Keith and Paul had come on the trip to deliver some child protection training to the staff and so it was decided that they would start that straight away. John and Chris wanted to look at some of the sites’ infrastructure to see how well things had been built and maintained, Stu and Jared had bought a case load of footballs to play with so they got to work unpacking. I went for a tour of the site with a keen group of lads who knew no English but were determined to talk to me all the way around. Phrasebooks are wonderful things! I wanted to see the fish pools first so I made my way down past the building to the far end of the project site. They have two pools, bought with money donated by people who came to my gigs last year. I know I keep saying it but it really is amazing to see them in the flesh, as it were.

By the pools we funded
They have had some problems with the pools, largely to do with contamination after the recent cyclone season damaged the banks around the pools letting salt water in. We are discussing what measures are needed to ensure the pools are safe. The small pool contains shrimp that is sold in the local market. The larger pool holds carp, used for food for the school and orphanage.

Next we saw the chickens, another Global Care funded project providing up to 2000 eggs a week. This really helps the project to survive and gain some self-sustainability. Around the back of the chicken shed we came across a tiny corrugated iron hut. “My grandfather sleep here,” said one of the children and they all fell about in hysterics. They have avocado and marrow growing behind the shed and a garden with other vegetables growing. It was all very impressive and such a simple setup.

We made our way back and my tour guides were distracted by Stu and Jared playing football. I suggested we should stick with football and leave the cricket to the Bangladeshis.

After lunch (more curry) John and Chris tried their hand at teaching. I walked in on them trying to learn how to count in Bengali. Then they turned to English and seemed even more confused. I successfully distracted a whole class of seven year olds with my cameras. There’s something very satisfying about interrupting a school lesson and not getting told off! The next lesson was letters. On ‘B’ John and Chris were stumped for something starting with ‘B’. It was a lesson indeed!

Marg seemed to have spent all the day colouring in and had a big crowd of children waiting to join in and laughing at her Bengali, cheering when she got it right.
John heard there was a cyber café open where we could check our emails and update our blogs. We walked back into the market and into a shop selling – well, I haven’t a clue what it was selling. It had a counter and that was it. We were led around the back and up a ladder into a room that had two old pc’s. One of the chaps unplugged the phone and plugged in the computer by stretching a wire across the room. Eventually the connection was made and I wrote a blog but email was slow and impossible. John decided to stick to texting.

We got back to the project and the child protections training is still in full swing. The children’s day finished at 12:30pm and many of the ones who don’t live at the orphanage had gone home. I showed some family photos from my phone to some of the live-in lads. Then we started talking about music and soon someone was banging a bucket and we were having dance lessons. One of the boys liked Michael Jackson and did an impression wearing my hat. Then we started singing and I taught them “My God Is So Big”, complete with actions. My first Bangla gig!